UK mogul to debut iPad mag

Sir Richard Branson makes his iPad magazine debut this week, joining a wave of new publications geared solely for tablets, notes The Wall Street Journal.

The British mogul, best known for his Virgin Group music, cellphone and travel empire, is teaming up with his 29-year-old daughter, Holly Branson, and veteran men's magazine editor Anthony Noguera, who once edited FHM, to unveil a multimedia magazine dubbed 'Project.'

The release comes as media companies seek to capitalise on Apple's iPad. News Corporation is throwing resources at a newspaper for the iPad called the Daily, which people familiar with the situation say could commence as soon as early next year.

Laptops have now overtaken regular desktop PCs as the computer of choice in Cypriot households, according to the annual survey 'Information and Communication Technologies Usage in Households and by Individuals 2010', reports the Financial Mirror.

While the overall percentage of households with access to a computer remained stable at 61.0% in 2010, the percentage of households with access to a desktop computer fell to 37.0% compared with 41.6% in 2009.

By contrast, the percentage of households with access to a laptop computer increased to 48.3% compared with 40.9% in 2009. “The laptop trend is something we noticed two to three years ago”, said Christos Kartsioulis, managing director of Cyprus-PC.com.

DramExchange, an online clearinghouse tracking information-technology market, recently forecast that tablet PCs will take over 2% of market share from netbook computers with estimated global shipment of 51 million systems versus 32.6 million netbooks in 2011, states CENS.

The market consulting firm estimated around seven million to 10 million netbooks will be replaced by tablet PCs next year mostly thanks to brisk rollouts of new tablet PC models and quick acceptance of the latest generation of portable PCs, which are more versatile than netbooks, in emerging markets.

DramExchange estimated around 222 million laptops, including netbooks, would be shipped worldwide in 2011, increasing 15.4% from 2010. The growth pace is moderate relative to the rates registered in the past few years despite introduction of new models that are built around Intel Huron River platform.